Genre Guesstimation – The Italian Job (1969)

Post navigation

The idea behind this feature (Genre Guesstimation) is for me to watch a bunch of new movies (or ones that I haven’t seen many times) from the chosen monthly GG genre in order to expand my knowledge of movies within that particular genre.

Please get me your submissions by the 25th of March by sending them to drewsheist@movierob.net

Try to think out of the box!

Great choice Drew!

Let’s see if I felt that this movie would be worthy of being in the company of my others favorite movies in the genre of Heist Films…

“Just remember this – in this country they drive on the wrong side of the road. ” – Charlie

Number of Times Seen – 1 (9 Mar 2016)

Brief Synopsis – After being released from prison, a career criminal helps plan and execute a heist of a gold shipment in Italy.

My Take on it – This is a movie that I’ve heard of for so many years because it is known as being a classic.

I’ve seen the remake and thought it was ok, but for some reason, I didn’t have much desire to see this…until now.

Overall, this is a very fun heist movie that has lots of memorable scenes and quotes.

The heist itself is planned out well and they explain it to us which helps because when they actually perform the heist, everything is really fast moving.

The main cast is great and it’s nice to see Michael Caine, Benny Hill and Noel Coward working together.

Loved the cliffhanger at the end and it really is unfortunate that a sequel was never made and that this was left a bit too open.

The main problem I had with this tho, was the lack of character development because most of the characters are left very two dimensional and seem just like filler since we don’t know or care much about them.

Also has a really catchy theme song that I still can’t get out of my head 4 days later.

Check it out here (so it’ll also be stuck in your head) 🙂

Bottom Line – This is a fun heist with some memorable scenes. Most of the characters aren’t developed enough tho. Great cliffhanger at the end that sets up a sequel perfectly but it never came to fruition. Caine, Hill and Coward are all great together. The heist itself is explained to us quite well, which helps when it goes into fast paced mode to follow what is going on. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – This is a movie primarily about cars and driving. Michael Caine, the star, could not drive at the time the movie was made, and in fact he is never seen driving a car. The only time in the movie that Charlie Croker is assumed to be driving is the cut between when he picks up his Aston Martin at the garage, and in the next shot we see it arrive outside the hotel. But Michael Caine gets out of a stationary Aston Martin after a further cut. Throughout the drive to Turin and the entire heist, Croker is always a passenger. (From IMDB)

Genre Grandeur Worthy? – Close, but despite being a fun heist caper, but we don’t get to know the characters well enough to really care about them.